Vaikunta ekadasi and Kusha bhavs guru bhakti on saibaba

Sairam friends

By grace of Shirdi Sai baba i am inspired to write about the Devotion on Guru ( Guru bhakti ) of his devotee Kusha Bhav.

Tommorow early morning 28:12:2009 is Vaikunda ekadasi , a auspicious day for Lord Vishnu . I wish to write this article so that Children of God who read this will be inspired to listen and recite Vishnu Sahasranaamam

Click below link to download Vishnu sahasranamam and learn how much importance saibaba gave for reciting and listening to Vishnu sahasranamam.

Vishnu Sahasranamam

Lord Maha Vishnu photo used with courtesy .

Saint Shirdi Sai baba to many is incarnation of God though sai showed himself only as a servant of God. Sai baba requeted his dear devotee shama to recite Vishnu Sahasranam .

But to another devotee Saibaba on the holy day of vaikunda ekadasi played this beautiful leela to show all of his devotees the greatness of Guru bhakti ( devotion on Guru )

A incident during Shirdi saibabas life on the day of Ekadeshi

Timeless and immortal Saibabas sweet little stories :

It must be sometime in 1908 – 1910. We never know the year . The incidents in saibaba’s life probably is never recorded much with dates and time as sai baba never preached or taught anything. The sweet little incidents between him and his devotees are immortal and timeless gift for all of us who loves go be in spiritual life.

Kusha Bhav –

How much i love Kusha Bhav . I love his devotion. His crazy love for saibaba. His deep true beautiful devotion on his guru.

Kusha Bhavs life before he came to Sai baba :

Quit his job as School master

He studied only elementary school which was enough qualification to get a school masters job for 5 to 7 rupees a month. He also worked as a priest in village temple but he dint cared for both. Kusha bhav was more interested in life of devotion and a devotee of lord Dattatreya.

Kusha bhavs first Guru who went to Himalayas :

By gods grace, Kusha bhav met a saint ( guru ) who taught him Yoga , asanas, parayana and rousing of kundalini sakti.Kusha was not happy with it. He wanted to use his spiritual powers to surprise people with materialistic things. He compelled his guru to teach him mantra like this.

His Guru taught him a mantra by which he can bring Milk sweet called pedha infront of group of people suddenly in his hands. He is not supposed to eat or sell them. He can only distribute them. After few days, Kusha bhavs guru decided to leave to Himalayas for life time.

Go to my elder brother sai baba :

From saibabas life we have understood that all true saints considers each others as brothers. When kusha bhav asked his guru what to do after he left him. He said , “Go to my elder brother  Sai baba of shirdi”

Shirdi – 1908

Lets imagine this scene. Kusha bhav has keen interest in using mantra and his spiritual powers to impress people. Saibaba is against all this. Though saibaba himself has astama siddhi ( powers to control nature ) , Sai never used them to impress others.

So heres the scene when kusha bhav first entered Saibabas dwarakamai in 1908.

Saibaba saw kusha bhav coming towards him. Sai stood up and asked him never to enter dwarakamai. Saibaba told him ‘ Remove your iron bangle , give up your habit of producing milk sweets”

Kusha bhav realized if his guru has directed him to saibaba, he has to respect saibaba’s words. So he obeyed sais commands.

Can you imagine when saibaba lived, untill 1910 there were very few devotees who came to him and believed him

Kusha bhav says in 1908 there were not much crowd from Mumbai. Only the village people in shirdi used to come to saibaba asking him to cure their stomach ache and other illness. To all of them saibaba used only one great power

The UDHI

saibaba took udi ( sacred ash ) from his every burning sacred fire – dhuni . This udi alone has cured hundreds of physical , personal and other materialistic problems.

Kusha Bhav’s idea about how saibaba helped his devotees :

Saibaba always called himself as servant of God. Kusha bhav has observed this. When a devotee who loves Lord Vishnu goes to Saibaba , saibaba will help him increase his faith on Vishnu ( their ishta devatha ).

If a devotee who loves lord Dattatreya goes to Saibaba, sai will use his powers to inspire the devotee to believe datta lives in sai himself and there by encourage him to believe in Datta.

Thus saibaba used his powers to help a devotee increase his faith on their favorite God.

Sai asked him to do parayan ( holy reading ) of Guru charitra 108 times :

Can you imagine reading sacred Guru Charitra  1 ….0…..8 TIMES ?

All of us know about the sacred book Guru Charitra. Once Saibaba has asked him to stay in Ganagapur and read Guru charitra 108 times. Trust me i have read Guru charitra only once as of now and i know how beautiful and sacred is the book. Its about life of the saint Narasimha saraswati in 13th century whos padhukas are now in Ganagapur.

Kusha Bhav followed every single command of saibaba perfectly. We all have to learn some thing from Kusha bhav friends. He went to ganagapur, stayed there for 10 to 11 months and read Guru charitra 108 times . For one parayan he took 3 days.

I say this to every sai devotee to read Guru charitra atleast once in their life time. Sai devotees read sai satcharitra but when saibaba lived, to impart guru bhakti , saibaba asked few of his devotees to read Guru charitra.

Now coming to the important incident between saibaba and Kusha bhav :

Sai leela and to be correct Sai’s childish play with Kusha bhav on Ekadasi day :

It was  a Ekadasi day. Kusha bhav was sitting near saibaba in his dwarakamai.

Saibaba : What did you eat today :

Kusha bhav : Nothing. Today is ekadashi.

Saibaba : what does this ekadashi mean ?

Kusha bhav : It means a day for fasting ( upvas )

Saibaba : whats Upvas ?

Kusha bhav clarified saibaba that its his habit to do fasting on Ekadasi day and he eats only Sweet potatoes on that day.

Saibaba forcing kusha bhav to have onions :

Saibaba took some onions and forced kusha bhav to eat them. Onions are supposed to have lust producing effects but saibabas intention is to convey the message that for a man who has devotion on Guru and who remembers guru always with pure heart, eating onions cant cause any harm.

Finally kusha bhav said “Saibaba, if you eat , i shall also have the onions with you”

Then they both had onions ..after a while few devotees came into dwarakamai.

Now listen to the beautiful leela played by saibaba

Saibaba wants to have some fun on expense of Kusha bhav having onions on a ekadasi day when a vishnu devotee is supposed to do fasting.

Saibaba : Look at him…He is eating onions on ekadasi day

Kusha bhav : Baba ate it and i also ate them as sai asked me to.

Kusha bhav started to justify that only because he wanted to respect saibabas words , he actually had the onions.

Here comes saibabas childish play with kusha bhav :

Saibaba wanted to have some humour .So saibaba used his powers and declared he had not eaten any onions. As he said it, baba vomitted out something on the floor of dwarakami.

That was not onions but sweet potatoes . …..He he he

Saibaba said to all the devotees present

“See , Its not onion but sweet potatoes i had eaten”

Guru bhakti of Kusha bhav – How far can you go to love a saint who begs for alms, wears a torn kafni and resides in a old masjid

Though saibaba vomited , to kusha bhav it was a gift . A gift from saibaba on this holy day. He never wanted to miss this gift. Saibaba has turned the onions into sweet potatoes and vomited them.

Kusha bhav treated it as prasad ( sacred food ), jumped to it, seized it with his mouth and ate it up.

Friends, see kusha bhavs devotion. How can anyone get this thought that a Guru’s vomit itself is a prasad. Even when i write this, i feel this is what saibaba wants from all of us.

What ever comes from saibaba, let us accept it and run to it because its  a gift. A gift once missed cant be got back. Look how kusha bhav never had one second to think how can anyone eat vomit though its from his Sadguru Saibaba.

Kusha bhav knows saibaba did this leela of converting the onions into sweet potatoes .

Friends, when i write this , i feel what kusha bhav has seen is

not the dirty vomit but love of his Guru,

His gurus greatness,

His gurus mighty powers

Saibaba abused Kusha bhav, beat him nicely on his back and scolded him asking how can he go to this extent of eating vomit . Kusha bhav never bothered saibabas words and was taking it as a blessing.

He knows from the life of Swami samartha ( akalkot maharaj ) , Saibabas beatings and abuses were only a blessing and it means something good is going to happen.

The lesson saibaba taught on the sacred vaikunta ekadasi day :

Friends, why should saibaba force a devotee to have onions on ekadasi day. Sai only encourages his devotees to follow their own path of devotion on any God. When it comes to his close devotees saibaba took rights to play his beautiful sai leela.

The lesson we all can learn from this sai leela is that

1. Devotion on God is great , appreciated . At the same time saibaba proves

a Man who listens to the commands of his Guru irrespective of breaking the rules is always protected and this extreme Guru bhakti can change ones life to good.

2. Accept what ever happens in life as gift of saibaba :

Many sai devotees write me like this

I love this boy/girl, i only want to marry him . saibaba is not helping me. NO. please dont be adamant. You can pray. you can ask saibaba but what ever saibaba is blessing you with, accept it.

If kusha bhav has considered saibabas vomit as dirty , will we even realize how deep can ones devotion to sainath can be.

Some devotees write me i am not earning much, i am struggling , i have this health issues etc. Fine…lets pray saibaba .at the same time, let us not hurt him saying baba you have not helped me. Please hold on to sainath.

3.The third lesson i learnt from this incident is very beautiful.  A guru will do good to many millions who comes to him. Only handful of devotees actually sit with saibaba.

Devotees who pray and trust saibaba day and night might wonder why saibaba never makes their life better.

The truth is , saibaba keeps some devotees in his own lap and waits untill all their bad karma of past several births are washed away.

To such close devotees alone, sai teaches beautiful things. Saibaba uses them to teach millions others how deep ones devotion on Guru can be.  But saibaba will never make your life a failure.

Kusha bhav spent whole 3 years with saibaba.

Next time you come , come two of you :

Once when Kusha bhav was about to take a leave from sai in dwarakamai, sai blessed him and said

“Next time you come, come two of you”

Kusha bhav innocently took his father to shirdi during his next visit. when they both were about to leave, saibaba said

“When i said two, i mean get married and come with a wife”

Ha ha

see friends, if saibaba wants to always keep kusha bhav by his side and make his life a failure or make him fit for nothing , then will saibaba be concerned about his marriage. Similarly let us all wait untill saibaba blesses us with a beautiful life , career, marriage , children, good health , peace and prosperity. Everything comes but let us have shradha and saburi on saibaba untill sai himself asks us to go for it.

Kusha bhav gets married but he again lives in shirdi for long time. His wife came and took him back to their village.

Friends, How beautiful is the Guru bhakti of Kusha bhav.

On this beautiful Vaikunta ekadasi day, i request all sai children to atleast listen to Vishnu sahasranam regularly and also love saibaba so deeply and intensly that saibaba himself must be happy about your faith.

From my heart to saibaba :

Sai, i love kusha bhav so much.  I always wish to be like him but have never been. Today i was in nagasai mandhir , standing inside the dhuni tank over heap of udi , with sweat and the sacred fires heat. I was asking you “baba, what can i do for my living..how will i make my parents happy”

i loved you so much baba…i always believe you are residing inside the dhuni where i have spent years in Nagasai mandhir.

When i came home, i was feeling so lazy if i should really write article as a gift for my sai friends on the sacred Vaikunta ekadasi day. For such a lazy fellow , it is only you who gave ability to sit with single mind and write this beautiful devotion between you and Kusha bhav .

Sai, please show me a way to make my parents happy.

Om namo narayanaya

Om sri sainathaya namaha

C.Venkatraman

28 : 12 :2009